The writing assignment was ‘Life’. So much to be said, and a lot of us said the same thing. 80% of the class made use of the sentence, “Life is hard”. And everyone lost two marks each because of it. Here is why:
Our teacher, just two weeks earlier, had taught us her way: you don’t say life is hard, the ground is hard. Life is not the ground. Life is difficult.
In my essay, I didn’t lose those two marks.
I’ve been tackling a writing task the past few days, and it’s been difficult. I was typing an email to my sister, and I started to say, “Nobody told me it would be this hard.” I immediately corrected myself, and typed ‘difficult’ instead. That was what sparked the memory of that essay.
I had used the sentence, “Life is hard”, like so many of my classmates. But I think it is what I said next that may have been the reason why I didn’t have two marks deducted. I don’t recall the exact wording of the essay, and I no longer have a copy of it. But it went something like this:
“Life is hard…like the ground. There is a saying that if life was meant to be easy, it wouldn’t have started with something called labor. I have found this to be true. While it is difficult in so many aspects, it is also hard. Life has a lot to do with the ground. It is the ground we stand on, when standing our ground. It is the ground we walk on, in our day to day experiences. It is the ground we base our values on and either rise to new heights, or fall to rock bottom; only to rise again. It is the ground we crawl on, on the days when we feel we just don’t have the strength to stand. It is the ground we cry on when we want to give up; and the ground we run on when we have been motivated and inspired to keep moving. And it is the ground we return to when our lives are done.”
Life is difficult in most respects – but it is also hard. And despite the cost of living, which is forever on the rise, it remains popular. It is popular because it gives us little moments, and little things, to make us smile and get us through each day – even the difficult ones. It is popular because life is a work of art.
Life is what it is.
In the famous words from a movie I love, based on a novella written by Stephen King:
Get busy living, or get busy dying.
Please get busy living!
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*Please don’t forget to head over to Endever Publishing Studios on Facebook and cast your vote in the short story competition. You can only vote once, for one story. My story (I’d appreciate your vote) is Contestant 1, “Shoebox Sanity” – if you scroll down the page there, you’ll see it. To vote for it, you need to ‘like’ that particular shared post.
While you are there, please also like the Endever page – there is another writing contest coming up that you may be interested in. You can also follow them here on WordPress and keep an eye on what they are up to – I am sure you won’t be disappointed. Thank you.*
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